The 4 Trends for Marketing at Web Summit 2016

A few weeks have passed and the dust has settled since the Web Summit. I was one of the 5.000 women that had the opportunity to go there for free, and I made an effort to take advantage of it for my passion - Marketing. If you share this passion, but you weren’t able to attend the event, I will share with you the 4 major trends for Marketing that I discovered:

• Mixed (and Virtual) Reality

Yes, as you probably already know, the Virtual Reality goggles were everywhere.

In every corner was someone trying on these things that put you in another world and make you look a pretty ridiculous for the ones around you. The problem with them is the lack of “situation awareness”, meaning you literally don’t know where you are going. Mixed Reality, in which you use a device to see the real world, with layers of holographic reality on top of it (just like Pokemon Go), is the real future. One day it will be part of our daily life and totally affect the way Marketing is done.

• Data Privacy

Have you heard of “cookies”?

Not the ones Cookie Monster loves, the ones on almost every company’s website. It’s great for brands to have huge amount of information about their consumers. However, there must be rules on how they use this data and how safely they store it. Maybe you don’t mind to share on Facebook or Instagram where we are having dinner with friends or your recent new relationship. But if a private and painful conversation you had on a chat was leaked, then you would be pissed for sure. That’s why this topic was so widely discussed on Web Summit. What do we need? New technologies to protect data and consciousness from companies that use it for Marketing purposes.

• Artificial Intelligence

Wait a minute, what is AI exactly? Is it that Jarvis from Iron Man? Cool!

Merriam Webster dictionary says AI is “the power of a machine to copy intelligent human behavior”. Wow that’s kind of exciting and scary at the same time… Well, let’s focus on what we can do is to take advantage of how they can help us in Marketing. Actually, many companies are already using it. Examples? Siri from Apple, Alexa from Amazon, Google’s personal assistant, thousands of bots on Facebook Messenger… It can help in Marketing by personalizing and at the same time optimizing customer service, demand prediction, content creation and many other important areas. However, we still need people to assist AI with more subjective and emotional matters, and companies have opted for a “hybrid approach” where marketeers step in when AI hits a roadblock.

• Authenticity

In most talks about Marketing in the XXI century, the word “Authenticity” was present.

Why? Because with all this technology available, we have developed an acute sense to detect “fake” content. We are tired of photoshopped images, celebrities showing their flawless luxury lives, companies “greenwashing” us with false campaigns, and friends posting couple pictures when we know they are constantly fighting. What do we want from brands? We want brands that are real and authentic, that show the good and the bad, that relate to us using the truth.

My favourite talk

Surprisingly it was Tinder’s (although I actually never used the app)!

I was expecting an awkward conversation about dating strangers, but Sean Rad, Tinder’s CEO, talked about the app as a place to meet people and avoid the shiness of talking with someone you don’t know. He saw the app as a way to find also meaningful and long term relationships, not just the cliché “one night stand”. He actually told us that he usually chats with Tinder’s users, to see how they can improve the app, and has even recruited staff through the app! However, competitor app Hinge, that actually focuses on meaningful relations only found a way to humorously criticised Tinder, in this video.

And you?

Do you think any of this apps can actually help you find your “soul mate”, or are you more a fan of the traditional dating?

Are you going to use any of these trends in your future career?

Tell me!

Inês Freire de Andrade

Source:

https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/future-tech-trends-web-summit-2016/1415820#